Despite an August memo from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) instructing the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to begin phasing out contracts with private prison operators, CoreCivic of Nashville, Tenn., formerly the Corrections Corporation of America, announced Nov. 15 that the BOP exercised a two-year renewal option at the 1,978-bed, company-owned McRae Correctional Facility in McRae.